Hey Notebook

Chapter 3

Park Chorong

                What is destiny? It is pretending to forget someone, trying to deny something that is there, because you are afraid that it is not. It’s like writing, and reading… you wouldn’t know the end if you won’t see through it until the end. Nothing is done until it’s done…

                I witnessed Jung Eunji leave years ago. I’ve seen her board that plane that basically flew her to a country I never knew of. We were all there, except Naeun. I’ve seen that sad face she once had, and I saw the disappointment in it.

                But it was not the thing that ended things between all of us. Yes, we all gradually drifted apart. However, unlike all of them who keeps pretending to forget the event happened, I was the only one reliving that memory. It wasn’t just drifting apart. We grew into different people, and we weren’t those little kids anymore who thought that love is forever. I knew it, and no one knows how much it hurts.

                “Bomi… where are you going for senior high? Will you be in MSU?” I asked one afternoon after our completion rites rehearsal. “I’ve heard almost everyone will go there.”

                Yoon Bomi shook her head in silence. She raised her head to face me with that sad smile etched on her lips.

                “Yeah well… My dad will be moving me to NDSU…” She barely able to say. “I pleaded him not to make me transfer but well, I’m not even supposed to be just in a state university for high school.”

                “Oh… rich kid huh… That’s sad.” I muttered back, placing my head casually on her shoulders. It was supposed to be something normal but then I noticed Bomi flinched on that spot. As if my little touches hurt her just enough. It hurts me too. But what am I supposed to say or do? I somehow know that it’s my fault. It would always be me.

                Things were being silent and calm that afternoon on the university. The serenity and the peacefulness were there. The moon was already shining on the east horizon even if the sun still hasn’t set. It was like a red orange pastel afternoon, where the sun was shining its last rays and was readying to say goodbye.

                Thinking deeply back then, I really enjoyed that moment. It was almost perfect. Watching the setting sun next to the girl you would want to be with, I was wondering. Will there be that time again…? That the four of us will be together once again and the failed love will once again start over?

                But there’s a reason why every memory was cut short. It wasn’t the whole scene…

                “Park Chorong, WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN MY APARTMENT?!?!” a girly girl’s voice screamed from the stairs that got my ears ringing for some time. I mentally groaned upon hearing the noise, almost tempted of throwing the Pikachu stuff toy on her face for being too loud.

                “Glad to know that you are affected with my very own presence… Am I that scary, huh Son Naeun?!” I spat back sarcastically on the brunette who just went down the stairs and went over me, “Besides, it’s not like I am a ghost that suddenly showed up.”

                “Technically you are ghost from my bad past.” She deadpanned before sitting on the arm of another sofa beside the couch I am sitting on, “What are you doing here?”

                “Wow… Bossy much? You got sassier than you already was before. Colder too.”

                “Wow… You got more annoying than you already was before.”

                “I’m not annoying!”

                “Yes, you are! I’m always annoyed at you because of Jung Eunji.”

                I would’ve made a comeback to that but my lips were sealed upon mentioning that girl. It felt weird hearing that name again after four years of not hearing it. It was almost like a bad name, a cussing word that no one would dare to speak or even hear of. Well, it was not because she has done something. It was just because it brings back precious memories that were supposed to be happy but eventually became a sad one. Remember that movie Inside Out? It was like Sadness touched a core memory and the once happy memory turned blue.

                “Jung Eunji… why does that name turns the gears around every time? Is that how powerful her name could be?” I breathed out, the expression on my face already changed into something serious, something solemn and sad.

                I noticed how she shook her head upon my muttering before taking the Pikachu from my arms, “Why do you guys like Pikachu? It’s not even cute. Mashimaro is cuter…”

                “You guys? Who?” I demanded.

                She rolled her eyes before throwing the toy back at me. “That’s that. Now tell me why you are here.”

                “Demanding much? I swear you get even mor—“

                “Stop spouting nonsense and answer me at least! This will just end up with useless words and come backs over and over again!”

                “Well if you could just sh—“

                “THEN JUST ANSWER ME!”

                I sighed in annoyance. “Fine. I was here to show you this.” I raised a fancy envelope from my hand. “I don’t have to tell you what this is about, right?”

                “What’s that?”

                It’s my turn to roll my eyes.

                “It’s an invitation… From Yoon Bomi… For her engagement party… Do you know anything about this?”

                She made an ‘ah’ with her lips before grinning continuously, “Yep! But Bomi didn’t give me a letter. She just told me personally a few weeks before. Why?”

                “Why? Why?! Yah! If you learned that THAT GIRL is getting engaged with someone else, what would you feel?!?!?!?!”

                She laughed hard at me.

                Oh really.

                “Hey this is not a laughing matter! I almost spew out potatoes out of my mouth upon reading the—“

                “That’s not an invitation for an engagement party of Yoon Bomi.” She explained, still chuckling from my outrage earlier. “THAT’S… for the engagement party of YOON BOMI’S BROTHER. How can you be so stupid, Park Chorong!”

                “Hey, I’m not! The sender says Yoon Bomi. Of course I’ll think that it’s her…”

                Naeun just shook her head, “Her brother was just pranking you. It was from him. You know how much that guy is delighted of making things harder for you two.”

                “How do you even know that????”

                Naeun just gave me a slight smile, “If you are hurt, and you were left with only one person to count on for, you have no choice but to get close to them. Yoon Bomi was the only one left for me for the past four years. It’s natural for me to learn a lot from her.”

Son Naeun